By Karen Savage

Charleston, S.C., has become the first southern city to file a climate liability lawsuit to hold fossil fuel companies accountable for climate change deception, impacts and costs.

The city filed the lawsuit on Wednesday against ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, BP, Shell, Chevron, Marathon, and several other fossil fuel companies, alleging they have known for decades that their products drive climate change but deliberately have deceived the public, press and policy makers about that harm.

“As this lawsuit shows, these companies have known for more than 50 years that their products were going to cause the worst flooding the world has seen since Noah built the Ark,” Mayor John Tecklenburg said. “Instead of warning us, they covered up the truth and turned our flooding problems into their profits.”

Sea levels are expected to rise an additional 2 to 3 feet by 2070. That will not only increase the city’s vulnerability during storms, but will exacerbate high tide, or sunny day flooding, which happened 89 times during 2019, according to Tecklenburg.

“By the year 2050, it’s estimated that occurrence could happen every other day,” Tecklenburg said, adding it will take an estimated $2 billion to address all the stormwater projects needed to protect Charleston residents. 

The suit, which was filed in state court, includes state law claims of public and private nuisance, strict liability and negligent failure to warn, trespass, and violations of South Carolina’s Unfair Trade Practices Act.